Professor Abby Dernburg 470 Stanley Hall [email protected] Office hours: Tuesdays 1-2, Thursdays 11-12 (except this week, Thursday only 11-1) The Plan for this week: Today: Sex chromosomes: dosage compensation, meiosis, and aneuploidy Wednesday/Friday: Dissecting gene function through mutation (Chapter 7) Professor Amacher already assigned the following reading and problems related to today’s lecture: Reading: Ch 4, p 85-88; Ch 6, p 195, 200; Ch 11, p 415; Ch. 18, skim p 669-677, Ch 13, 481-482 Problems: Ch 4, #23, 25; Ch 13, #24, 27 - 31 Let’s talk about sex... chromosomes We’ve learned that sex-linked traits show distinctive inheritance patterns The concept of “royal blood” led to frequent consanguineous marriages among the ruling houses of Europe. Examples of well known human sex-linked traits Hemophilia A (Factor VIII deficiency) Red/Green color blindness Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Male-pattern baldness* *Note: male-pattern baldness is both sex-linked and sex-restricted - i.e., even a homozygous female doesn’t usually display the phenotype, since it depends on sex-specific hormonal cues. Sex determination occurs by a variety of different mechanisms Mating-type loci (in fungi) that “switch” their information Environmental cues (crocodiles, some turtles, sea snails) “Haplodiploid” mechanisms (bees, wasps, ants) males are haploid, females are diploid Sex chromosomes We know the most about these mechanisms because a) it’s what we do, and b) it’s also what fruit flies and worms do. Plants, like animals, have both chromosomal and non-chromosomal mechanisms of sex determination. The mechanism of sex determination is rapidly-evolving! Even chromosome-based sex determination is incredibly variable Mammals (both placental and marsupial), fruit flies, many other insects: XX ♀/ XY ♂ Many invertebrates: XX ♀or ⚥ / XO ♂ (“O” means “nothing”) Birds, some fish: ZW ♀ / ZZ ♂(to differentiate it from the X and Y system) Duckbilled platypus (monotreme, or egg-laying mammal): X1X1 X2X2 X3X3 X4X4 X5X5 ♀ / X1Y1 X2Y2 X3 Y 3 X4X4 X5Y5 ♂ (!!?) Note: these are given as examples. It’s important that you know about mammals, but you don’t have to memorize the others! Definition: the “heterogametic” sex is the one with mismatched sex chromosomes (and thus two different classes of gametes, which determine the sex of the offspring). In mammals, males are heterogametic, but males are “homogametic” in bird species. Even chromosome-based sex determination is highly variable XXX XX XXY XO XY XYY OY Drosophila Normal Normal Sterile Normal Normal dead female female male male male dead Human Male with Female with Normal Normal Klinefelter’s Turner Normal Normal syndrome syndrome 1 1 dead female female (tall, usually (short, male male sterile) sterile) What does this tell us? 1. The human Y chromosome carries a “dominant” maleness gene (SRY or TDF). 2. In Drosophila, sex is not determined by the presence of the Y, but by the number of X chromosomes (actually the X-to-autosome ratio). The Y is only important for male fertility. Sex-chromosome-based sex determination mechanisms pose two major challenges: 1. “Dosage compensation” - how to equalize the amount of gene expression from 1 vs. 2 chromosomes 2. Meiosis in the heterogametic sex - how do two unlike chromosomes separate from each other? Mechanisms of dosage compensation, just like sex determination, show amazing variation Mice, humans Fruit fly (Drosophila) Nematode (C. elegans) XX ♀/ XY ♂ XX ♀/ XY ♂ XX ⚥ / XO ♂ How do these species equalize the expression of X-linked genes between the two sexes? Sex determination and dosage compensation can be triggered independently Note that in mammals, sex determination Mice, humans (i.e., the development of sexually dimorphic XX ♀/ XY ♂ anatomical features) and dosage compensation are determined independently, by separate mechanisms. The presence of a Y chromosome (or the TDF gene) specificies male sexual development, but X-inactivation is triggered in any cells having more than one X chromosome. Thus, XXY males (Klinefelter’s Syndrome) undergo X inactivation. Similarly, XO fruit flies are sterile (because the Y carries genes needed for sperm development), but develop as normal-looking males because they undergo dosage compensation. X-inactivation in mammals occurs in early embryonic development. The maternal and paternal X are inactivated randomly (or “stochastically”) in cells of the early embryo. Mice, humans XX ♀/ XY ♂ Random X-inactivation was proposed by Mary Lyon in 1961 Her argument was based on the “bridled,” or “mosaic” appearance of coat colors in many female mice, but only extremely rare (and infertile) male mice “Barr Bodies” (named for Murray Barr) “brindled” Could these extra “heteropyknotic” mouse or “heterochromatic” bodies in XX nuclei correspond to the inactive X? Random X-inactivation was proposed by Mary Lyon in 1961 Her argument was based on the “bridled,” or “mosaic” appearance of coat colors in many female mice, but only extremely rare (and infertile) male mice “brindled” mouse Tortoiseshell Calico Tortoiseshell and Calico coat patterns in cats also reflect X-inactivation. Both patterns indicate heterozygosity at the X-linked Orange locus (Oo), and are thus almost always female (rare males are thought to be XXY). The Calico pattern results from a combination of the Oo mosaicism and a separate gene called white spotted The mechanism of X-inactivation is still only partially understood. It involves the production of noncoding RNAs from a region on the X chromosome called the Xic (X inactivation center) Both X chromosomes initially produce both Xist and Tsix, but eventually a “choice” is made (it’s not clear what breaks the symmetry between the two Xs). After this tipping point, only the inactive X (Xi) continues to produce Xist. This RNA spreads out to coat the whole chromosome! Somehow this leads to recruitment of other factors that shut off most genes on Xi. X chromosome DNA (DAPI) Xist RNA “painting” probe merge Xi Xa Clemson et al., JCB 1996 Dosage compensation mechanisms in flies and worms involve recruitment of protein complexes to the male and hermaprhodite X chromosomes, respectively Drosophila polytene chromosomes C. elegans embryo DNA DCC SDC= “sex determination MSL= “male-specific lethal” and dosage compensation” Like mammalian X-inactivation, this process requires expression of noncoding RNAs (rox genes) from the X chromosome. However, it results in upregulation (rather than silencing) The dosage compensation complex of the male X. (DCC) in C. elegans includes some proteins that are only expressed in hermaphrodites. So how does the heterogametic sex accomplish meiosis? Mammalian sex chromosomes have “pseudoatosomal regions” (PARs) Why do human sex chromosome aneuploidies cause developmental problems? 45, XO - Turner Syndrome only 1 in 50 (or fewer) XO fetuses survives to birth* (yet 1 in 2,500 women is affected) Women with Turner Syndrome show pleiotropic developmental disorders, and are infertile. If one X chromosome is usually inactivated, then why do XO females show differences from XX females? 1. Not all genes on the X are subject to X-inactivation: Genes in the pseudoautosomal region (PAR) are not dosage-compensated. One of them, the SHOX gene, is likely responsible for the short stature of women with Turner Syndrome (and possibly the taller-than-average stature of XYY, XXY, and other extra-sex-chromosome karyotypes) About 10% of genes on the X outside the PAR also “escape” X inactivation Low expression of noncompensated genes may account for the somatic phenotypes associated with the 45, XO karyotype 2. X-inactivation is a somatic process Both X chromosomes are normally active in the female germline (reproductive tissue, including premeiotic and meiotic cells). A single X chromosome is lethal to developing oocytes. *XO females that survive to birth and adulthood may be mosaic for the XO karyotype. Alternatively, they may carry genes that modify the severity of the consequences of having a single X. Why do human sex chromosome aneuploidies cause developmental problems? 47, XXY - Klinefelter’s (or Klinefelter) Syndrome Affects ~1 in 500 males (only XYY is more common) Has mild somatic consequences - normal intelligence, tall stature. Klinefelter’s is often not discovered until puberty, or even later. However, 95-99% of males with Klinefelter’s Syndrome are infertile, or nearly so. Testes are underdeveloped and few if any mature sperm are made. Why? An extra copy of SHOX in the PAR may cause tall stature. The extra X chromosome is not inactivated in the germline, leading to defects in gonadogenesis and hormonal regulation. An unpaired X chromosome leads to death of spermatocytes (which, in turn, leads to atrophy of the testes). Mosaicism & Chimerism In rare cases, an organism will be made up of cells of 2 distinct genotypes. This can happen in at least 2 different ways. The more common way is for an embryo to undergo a mitotic error early in development, which usually results in chromosome loss. If the resulting cells can survive without the chromosome, both populations of cells may continue to expand, resulting in a mosaic embryo. Some cases of Down syndrome are thought to be relatively mild because the extra copy of Chromosome 21 was lost at an early division, resulting in a mosaic embryo. In animals with sex determination mechanisms based on X/autosome ratio, loss of an X chromosome can result in a “gynandromorph (half male, half female) The Chimera of Greek mythology In future lectures, we will discuss how mosaicism can be a useful experimental tool in fruit flies and worms, and how also how it can be an indicator of elevated rates of chromosome loss in yeast. A much rarer kind of mosaicism, chimerism results from the fusion of two fertilized eggs very early in development (the “vanishing twin”). This leads to the body being made up of two genetically distinct sets of cells. This may go undetected (especially if both zygotes have the same sex chromosome makeup), but will sometimes be evident due to phenotypic differences between the two genotypes - for example, differences in pigmentation (see image on the right) or sex determination, resulting in intersex phenotypes.